Guarding Our Kids' Eyes

Some time last year, Phil discovered that one of our boys had completed a search on his iPad for an inappropriate word that he had heard.  He didn't know what the word meant, but knew it was inappropriate from the tone of the conversation, and so wanted to look it up less he feel stupid.  When Phil discovered this by looking at his search history, we both kinda freaked out but had the good sense to remain level-headed when approaching our son.  Truth be told, I let Phil take this task for the team!  Phil talked to him and found out that he hadn't known what people were talking about, was too embarrassed to ask us because he knew it was bad, and as soon as he saw what it was he said he felt gross and turned off the iPad right away.  Phil was super calm and understanding and just explained that we have to be careful what we view online because there are bad things and bad people out there and certain images can get stuck in our head and mess with us.  The boy understood and was embarrassed but thankful to be caught because it had been weighing on him.

Theme Parks and God's Generosity

Not too far from our house, we have a little amusement park that has grown so much since the last time we went, 9 whole years ago!  Edaville Family Theme Park is definitely geared towards little kids, but they are expanding to include a water ride and bumper boats for the older crew.  We seriously had so much fun taking Maggie, Xander, Declan, and Brendan on Sunday.

While you look at these Edaville photos, let me tell you a story about God's generosity...

Dude Perfect was Perfection

Right around this time last year, Andrew and Eamon heard about Dude Perfect and immediately became obsessed.  

They asked for tshirts for their birthday and Dude Perfect toys for Christmas.  They watched every single Dude Perfect video on youtube during their precious screen time.  They read everything they could about them, and were very impressed that they seemed like nice, funny, Christian family guys.  So were we.  The boys started making up trick shots of their own and getting ideas together to make their own videos (like every other boy in love with Dude Perfect, I'm sure!) and Dude Perfect has just been so entrenched in our lives.  They can't wait for new videos to come out like we used to struggle to wait a week between Full House episodes.  Andrew even wrote them a fan letter this summer...only to have it returned because of a bad address :(

7QT: Whole Family, Whole30, Wholey Good Deals

Linking up with Kelly and the Kool Kids because it's Friday morning y'all!

1)

  I got up early to walk the dog and blog and even though I'll crash and burn by 8 pm, I can't take these warm mornings for granted!  I have severe FOMO on great weather days or when I see somebody running.  Even if I've already done my workout...is this normal?

2)

We were able to celebrate with my side of the family on Saturday.  We try to get together for Labor Day Weekend and celebrate the August/September birthdays (there's a lot), then for Halloween to celebrate October/November birthdays (Again, a lot), then Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter (spring birthdays), and July 4 (summer birthdays).  The winter birthdays kind of get lost in the shuffle, but there aren't too many of them.  The birthday kids get ONE present from their godparents and that's it.  Easy peasy doesn't break the bank squeezy.  One of my sisters couldn't make it, but here's the rest of the familia: